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2002/08/27
Promising words from Britains de facto leader of the Jewish community. The Israeli right, and in special Sharon and his men needs verbal smashes like this.
Israel set on tragic path, says chief rabbi, The Guardian 27.08.2002 Britain's chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, today delivers an unprecedentedly strong warning to Israel, arguing that the country is adopting a stance "incompatible" with the deepest ideals of Judaism, and that the current conflict with the Palestinians is "corrupting" Israeli culture. In a move that will send shockwaves through Israel and the world Jewish community, Professor Sacks departs from his usual policy of offering only public endorsement of Israel, and broad support for moves toward peace, by giving an explicit verdict on the effect that 35 years of military occupation and decades of conflict are having on Israel and the Jewish people. Some reactions the day after: Hardliners condemn Sacks over Israel stance, The Guardian 28.08.2002 A hardline Israeli rabbi said Dr Sacks had become "irrelevant" in the world Jewish community because of his comments. But other Jewish leaders applauded the chief rabbi for speaking out and claimed his words would find sympathy with many Jews. Israel's state radio, the Voice of Israel, carried reports on the chief rabbi's interview throughout yesterday. The early reports focused on his comments about the incompatibility of Israel's stance in the occupied territories with Judaism's deepest ideals, but later the story's emphasis was switched so as to highlight his meeting with an Iranian ayatollah and his comment that they quickly "established a common language". "Perhaps it was an effort to discredit him", said Rabbi Arik Aschermann, the head of Rabbis for Human Rights, a Jerusalem-based group. "What he says is very much in line with what we think, and what many others believe who are hesitant to say so out loud". Michael Harris (Orthodox rabbi);Sacks is right: all violence corrupts, The Guardian 28.08.2002 In the Book of Chronicles, God tells David that he may not build the Temple because of the blood that he has spilled. Maimonides argued that David's wars were morally justified; nevertheless, he explains, the very fact that David took human life itself invalidates him for the task of constructing the House of God. Even the justified, coerced imposition of suffering on others is morally corrosive. The chief rabbi is right to warn that, in the long term, Israel has no authentically Jewish alternative but to find another way. 2002/08/26
Perry Anderson; Internationalism: A Breviary, New Left Review 14, March-April 2002
The metamorphoses of nationalism and internationalism, from the time of Kant to the 'revolution in military affairs'. Social bases, ideological forms, geopolitical locations. Few political notions are at once so normative and so equivocal as internationalism. Today, the official discourse of the West resounds with appeals to a term that was long a trademark of the Left. Whatever sense is given it, the meaning of internationalism logically depends on some prior conception of nationalism, since it only has currency as a back-construction referring to its opposite. Yet while nationalism is of all modern political phenomena the most value-contested-judgements of its record standardly varying across a 180-degree span, from admiration to anathema-no such schizophrenia of connotation affects internationalism: its implication is virtually always positive. But the price of approval is indeterminacy. If no-one doubts the fact of nationalism, but few agree as to its worth, at the entry to the millennium the status of internationalism would appear to be more or less the reverse. It is claimed on all sides as a value, but who can identify it without challenge as a force? 2002/08/23
Why Earth Summit must fail to succeed, The Daily Yomiuri 21.08.2002
The issues are not right, there is no political will, and the world is not ready for yet another summit on sustainable development right now. So let it fail, and let it fail miserably. Why? So that it can eventually succeed.
Palestinians thrash out tactics, The Guardian 23.08.2002
Palestinian factions, including the militant group Hamas, met again in Gaza City last night to agree a common strategy in their fight against Israel. The main split is between militants wanting Palestinian attacks to be confined to Israel soldiers and settlers in the West Bank and Gaza, and those wanting to continue attacks in Israel.
Britain tightens arms exports to Israel, The Guardian 23.08.2002
The British government is tightening the controls on arms exports to Israel, according to a leaked Department of Trade and Industry document. Though both the British and Israeli governments publicly deny that an embargo is in place, it is clear that a partial one is being applied informally and is being expanded. 2002/08/21
The Death Convoy of Afghanistan, Newsweek August 26 issue, 2002
Trudging over the moonscape of Dasht-e Leili, a desolate expanse of low rolling hills in northern Afghanistan, Bill Haglund spotted clues half-buried in the gray-beige sand. Strings of prayer beads. A woolen skullcap. A few shoes. Those remnants, along with track marks and blade scrapes left by a bulldozer, suggested that Haglund had found what he was looking for. Then he came across a human tibia, three sets of pelvic bones and some ribs. Michelle Goldberg; When does a massacre matter?, Salon 20.08.2002 Evidence that American allies in Afghanistan slaughtered captured Taliban soldiers first surfaced last spring. Will a Newsweek cover story force an investigation? So far, the U.S. and U.N. say no. 2002/08/20
We're Dying a Slow And Silent Death, allAfrica.com 18.08.2002
She last had a decent meal nearly two years ago. Her 20kg ration of maize ran out two weeks ago. She now survives on wild berries, plants and leaves, which she says are not enough to maintain her frail 70-year-old frame. Villagers like her have to compete with wild animals that normally feed on the plants. "We are dying in silence and helplessness here," she says in a hoarse voice. "It is a slow but painful death. Even if we survive, the future does not look too promising. We do not know what will happen to us."
Phyllis Bennis; All the Facts About Iraq, AlterNet 15.08.2002
Nelson Mandela was right when he said that attacking Iraq would be "a disaster." A U.S. invasion of Iraq would risk the lives of U.S. military personnel and inevitably kill thousands of Iraqi civilians; it is not surprising that many U.S. military officers, including some within the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are publicly opposed to a new war against Iraq. Such an attack would violate international law and the UN Charter, and isolate us from our friends and allies around the world. An invasion would prevent the future return of UN arms inspectors, and cost billions of dollars urgently needed at home. And at the end of the day, an invasion will not insure stability, let alone democracy, in Iraq or the rest of the volatile Middle East region, and will put American civilians at greater risk of hatred and perhaps terrorist attacks than they are today. 2002/08/14
The President's Economic Forum Waco, Texas August 13, 2002 The White House takes pleasure in announcing the schedule for the historic President’s Economic Forum, to be held in Waco, Texas, on Tuesday, August 13, 2002. Not since the convening of secret Dick Cheney’s Energy Task Force has such a rich and diverse array of economists, CEO’s, and government officials convened at any one time! Click here for the program
September 11
Maurice Lemoine; Venezuela's press power, Le Monde diplomatique August 2002
Never even in Latin American history has the media been so directly involved in a political coup. Venezuela's 'hate media' controls 95% of the airwaves and has a near-monopoly over newsprint, and it played a major part in the failed attempt to overthrow the president, Hugo Chávez, in April. Although tensions in the country could easily spill into civil war, the media is still directly encouraging dissident elements to overthrow the democratically elected president - if necessary by force. 2002/08/13
Tim Judah; Kurdish guerrillas poised to fire first shots in war on Iraq, The Observer 11.08.2002
The Kurds of Iraq are girding for war. Guerrillas, known as peshmergas, are working day and night hauling sandbags, digging trenches and bulldozing mountain roads to their front lines. In what may be the opening battle of the war for Iraq, the Kurds are preparing to crush an Islamic fundamentalist group which has seized territory on the Iraqi-Iranian border and which some claim provides evidence of a link between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. Iraqi Kurdish sources say they need to move quickly to crush the Taliban-inspired Islamists known as Ansar al-Islam because, if a US-led attack on Saddam begins, all peshmerga forces will be needed to surge southwards into government-controlled Iraq. They do not want to face a war on two fronts. Mark Leonard; Could the left back an Iraq war?, The Observer 11.08.2002 In the black and white world of President Bush, the European left is as soft as Saddam is evil. And the White House seems to be as uninterested in persuading the left to back a war in Iraq as they are in negotiating with the Iraqi leader about readmitting weapons inspectors. The Republican right may believe that pacifism is so firmly ingrained in the psyche of the left that all arguments will fall on deaf ears. But are they right to cut their losses? Maybe the strategists at the Pentagon should take a little time off from studying the politics of the Iraqi opposition and spend some time understanding their potential allies. After September 11 it is inevitable that America's self-defence will weigh more heavily domestically than the welfare of the Iraqi people. And Bush's strategy for the mid-term elections is based on keeping America mobilised. If European citizens were more inclined to take the threat of attack seriously, this would no doubt be their first priority too. But focusing on exclusively on self-defence rather than talking up the benefits for the Iraqi people is likely to further fuel the suspicions of the left who fear that a western-imposed military government will only be marginally less oppressive to Iraqi civilians than Saddam Hussein. Nick Cohen; Who will save Iraq?, The Observer 11.08.2002 'm not saying Iraqi opposition is perfect. Generals who want a pro-American dictatorship form a part of it, while the two Kurdish factions in the INC were engaged in a civil war as late as 1996. Nevertheless, the heroism of many dissidents can't be doubted by those who are prepared to do what the Bishop of Oxford won't do and look at Saddam's regime with clear eyes. [..] 'm not saying Iraqi opposition is perfect. Generals who want a pro-American dictatorship form a part of it, while the two Kurdish factions in the INC were engaged in a civil war as late as 1996. Nevertheless, the heroism of many dissidents can't be doubted by those who are prepared to do what the Bishop of Oxford won't do and look at Saddam's regime with clear eyes. There are honourable grounds for upholding the authority of the United Nations and opposing American global domination. What is dishonourable - indeed insufferable - is the pretence of everyone from Trots to archbishops that their animating concern is the sufferings of the peoples of Iraq. Nick Cohen; The last thing the US wants is democracy in Iraq, The Observer 28.07.2002 It's impossible to say with certainty, but most reports from Washington suggest that Bush wants another tyrant and Blair will concur. The alternative is the Iraqi National Congress, a loose and fractious coalition, but one which, for all its faults, is committed to democracy. The CIA and State Department hate it and the bad example a liberated Iraq would give to the repressed people of Saudi Arabia. John Pilger; The great charade, The Observer 14.07.2002 As the West prepares for an assault on Iraq, John Pilger argues that 'war on terror' is a smokescreen created by the ultimate terrorist ... America itself. The fanatics who attacked America came from Saudi Arabia and Egypt. No bombs fell on these American protectorates. Instead, more than 5,000 civilians have been bombed to death in stricken Afghanistan, the latest a wedding party of 40 people, mostly women and children. Not a single al-Qaeda leader of importance has been caught.
Bush threatens troops in longshore dispute, San Francisco Bay Area Indymedia 09.08.2002
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) revealed this week that a secret Bush administration task force has threatened a military takeover of West Coast ports if the union decides to strike. In response, the national AFL-CIO and prominent leaders including Senate Majority leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn and Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-Calif.) are rallying to the side of the union demanding that the Bush administration stay out of negotiations.
Will this madness never stop?
US plans hit squads to target al-Qa'ida worldwide, The Independent 13.08.2002 The United States is considering a radical plan to use elite military units to track and kill al-Qa'ida leaders around the world, a policy that would break with tradition and raise major questions of US compliance with international law. 2002/08/07
Robert Scheer; Weighing a Just War, or Settling an Old Score?, The Nation August 6, 2002
Bush's claims in the first days after the Sept. 11 tragedy that Iraq was complicit in the disaster have never been backed up by any real evidence. The existence of an alleged, unrecorded encounter between one of the 9/11 terrorists and an Iraqi official in Prague has been debunked, reaffirmed, debunked again and on and on. Yet, while there is no credible connection with Hussein, there is ample evidence that the biggest funders and most enthusiastic cheerleaders of the 9/11 terrorists came from the very Persian Gulf states that were saved by the first Bush war against Iraq. So, back to the old gambit that Iraq poses a threat of unleashing weapons of mass destruction. Our allies aren't buying it, and even Scott Ritter, the ex-Marine who conducted on-site U.N. inspections in Iraq, has testified before NATO that the current alarm is politically motivated and not supported by facts on the ground.
Leading article: Let the UN test Saddam's intentions before sending in the bombers, The Independent 07.08.2002
There can be little doubt about the cynical intentions of the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, in offering to renew talks about readmitting UN arms inspectors. The timing of the move, the vague nature of the proposals and the conditions first attached all suggest a troublemaking motive. But his tactics have had one not entirely negative effect. They have helped to clarify the debate about waging war on Iraq. Saddam Hussein's overtures may be cynical manoeuvres, but they should not be dismissed without the "exploration" that Kofi Annan has proposed. The prospect that bombs could start to fall while talks are still being broached is inimical to millions more than the 3,000 British churchmen and women who signed yesterday's petition, and makes a mockery of justice. 2002/08/06
Mobilize against Microsoft's 'final solution' for owning the internet, Portland Independent Media Center 03.07.2002
Microsoft announced on Monday its plans for a new processor-based digital authentication system known as 'Palladium', which would enable Microsoft to effectively remote-control home PCs under the guise of 'security' and 'copyright protection'. Of course these are both serious issues that need to be addressed, but the implications of the Palladium technology are much wider-ranging and far more disturbing than simply protecting software manufacturers' and other copyrights. Ross Anderson; TCPA / Palladium Frequently Asked Questions, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge, UK
The Ethics Of Revenge--by a father who lost his son to terror, ZNet Mideast 31.08.2002
My beloved son Arik, my own flesh and blood, was murdered by Palestinians. My tall blue-eyed golden-haired son who was always smiling with the innocence of a child and the understanding of an adult. My son. If to hit his killers, innocent Palestinian children and other civilians would have to be killed, I would ask the security forces to wait for another opportunity. If the security forces were to kill innocent Palestinians as well, I would tell them they were no better than my son's killers.
Vernon Loeb; Afghan war a lab for US innovation, DAWN - International, 28.03.2002
Within weeks of the attacks on New York and the Pentagon last September, the Defence Threat Reduction Agency began working virtually around the clock to develop a powerful new bomb. Their mission: come up with a device that could penetrate Al Qaeda's cave complexes in the mountains of Afghanistan and kill the people inside. By mid-December, the scientists were ready. In the Nevada desert, they detonated the world's first "thermobaric" bomb. Ten were quickly dispatched to US forces in Central Asia, and three weeks ago the first one was fired by an F-15E at a tunnel in eastern Afghanistan at the start of Operation Anaconda, the offensive against suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban holdouts. The crash development of the weapon is just one example of how the war on terrorism is proving a potent laboratory for military innovation. Thirty new technologies, from armed aerial drones to dosimeters that measure exposure to toxic chemicals, have been rushed into use at home and abroad, the offspring of a 688 million dollars effort over the past eight years to stimulate innovation at the Pentagon. New Weapons for a New War, Wired 09.10.2001 America's war against the Taliban and al-Qaida will allow U.S. forces to test newly developed weapons never used on a battlefield before. Following is a review of many of the weapons that have been introduced since the 1991 Gulf War -- and systems currently being designed that could be introduced over the next few years. US uses bunker-busting 'thermobaric' bomb for first time, Yahoo! News/AFP 03.03.2002 The spokesman declined to disclose why the Pentagon had chosen to use such a powerful munition against a cave complex near Gardez, saying only that "a pocket of Taliban and al-Qaeda resistance" had been discovered in the area.
Really, no cycle of violence? Well, this is one opinion on the issue.
Editorial: It all started when he hit me back, The Jerusalem Post 01.08.2002 The problem is that there is no "cycle of violence" and certainly no "cycle of terror," as a Palestinian Authority statement creatively put it. If anything, this latest gruesome bombing of a cafeteria in Jerusalem's Hebrew University accentuates how little reciprocity there is in this conflict. And this somewhat more moderate view on the Israeli reactions to Hamas suicide bombers: The campus is not immune, Ha'aretz English Edition 01.08.2002 The initial, emotional - and mistaken - response would be a brutally forceful response. A more balanced response would be to sustain the effort to distinguish between fighting terror - including striking at its commanders - and concern for the welfare of the Palestinian population that has been victimized by terror almost as much as the Israeli citizenry. The Palestinian community is now trying to assess what has been gained and lost in its conflict with Israel. There is growing recognition that the violence has backfired on the Palestinians. Israeli policy must encourage the conclusion that it would be best to end terror and go back to political bargaining. The last link to a discussion on how suicide bombing has an counter productive effect. Suicide Bombing Revisited, Social Action Archive/Simon Wiesenthal Center May 2002 Colonel Samir Mashehrawi, Deputy Commander of the Preventive Security Apparatus in Gaza and a key leader of the local Tanzim, described suicide bombings as the Palestinian “nuclear weapon”, that is a weapon that can be used only when a country feels it is on the verge of total collapse. His message was, that suicide bombings were quickly becoming counter-productive, costing Palestinians international support and denying them any sympathy from the Israeli public. It seems that some co-ordination it developing between the PA and Hamas in order to scale down the number of suicide bombings – not stopping them altogether. The understanding reached calls for diverting more military effort to attacks against Jewish settlements in the territories and military targets. However so far no change of course is detected on the ground. Efforts to mount suicide bombing operations are continuing full steam ahead after a lull imposed by the presence of the IDF in most major towns of the West Bank.
Gargi Bhattacharya; Time for a rethink, The Guardian 06.08.2002
If the issue of an academic boycott of Israeli universities becomes more interesting than the suffering of Palestinians, it is time to think of a new campaign strategy. 2002/08/01
Patriot missiles placed in Turkey. The concrete actions in order to attack Iraq takes place NOW.
Alarmstimmung in Ankara, taz 01.08.2002 Türkische Zeitung "Hürriyet" berichtet über Kriegsvorbereitung der USA gegen den Irak. Patriot-Abwehrraketen sollen im Land stationiert werden. Kein Dementi der türkischen Regierung. In der Türkei mehren sich die Zeichen, dass die USA bereits dabei sind, konkrete militärische Vorbereitungen für einen Angriff auf den Irak zu treffen. Jüngstes Indiz ist eine Meldung der größten türkischen Tageszeitung, Hürriyet, am gestrigen Mittwoch. Seit letzten Freitag, so das Blatt, ist eine Gruppe amerikanischer Spezialisten im Land, die die Stationierung von Patriot-Abwehrraketen vorbereitet. Die 15-köpfige Gruppe solle untersuchen, welche Städte und Industrieanlagen neben den militärischen Objekten im Südosten des Landes gegen mögliche irakische Raketenangriffe geschützt werden sollen. They say one thing, but do another... Senate told Bush has ruled out attack on Iraq this year, The Independent 01.08.2002 The Senate opened the first serious public debate over the merits and consequences of an American attack on Iraq, amid strong signs yesterday that if one does come in President's George Bush's first term it will be in the early part of next year or not at all. Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware, stressing his belief that no decision on a military operation had been taken by the White House, said he would be astonished if "there's any such attempt ... between now and the first of the year". Mr Biden, head of the Senate foreign relations committee, which is holding the hearings, seemed to suggest that the Bush administration has told key congressional leaders and close allies including Britain that there will be no "October surprise" over Iraq, that is, an attack just before the mid-term elections on 7 November. |
